Trick

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card games

Most Western card games are
trick games, in which each player in turn plays a card to the table, and whoever plays the best card wins them all. These cards constitute a
trick, which the winner places facedown in a pile before playing the first card to the next
trick. The best card is usually the highest-ranking card of the same suit as the card led—that is, of the same suit as the first...

hearts

...The ultimate winner is the player with the lowest penalty score when one or more players have reached 100 penalty points. Penalties are scored at the rate of one point for each heart taken in a
trick and 13 for taking the queen of spades in a
trick; thus, there are 26 penalty points in each deal.

klaberjass

...of the original turned card was accepted as trump and either player holds the 7 of that suit, called dix, that player may trade it for the turned card. The player must do this before playing to a
trick (in some variants before declaring any sequences). This privilege does not apply if the maker named a different suit trump.

loo

...game, three cards are dealt to each player, and the next card is exposed to establish a trump suit. The player to the left of the dealer leads, and one-third of the pool goes to the winner of each
trick. The pool is formed by antes before each deal and may be increased by payments for loo (failure to win a
trick) and fines for irregularities.

nap

Each player, in turn from the dealer’s left, may pass or make one bid, which must be higher than all preceding bids. From low to high, the bids are two
tricks, three
tricks, misère (lose every
trick), four
tricks, nap (five
tricks), wellington (five
tricks for doubled stakes), and blücher (five
tricks for redoubled stakes). Wellington may only follow a bid of nap and blücher a...

ombre

...from the Spanish suited 40-card deck lacking 10-9-8 in each suit; the remaining cards go facedown as a stock. Players bid for the right to name the trump suit in exchange for undertaking to win more
tricks than either opponent individually. The lowest bid, entrada, offers to do this after making any number of discards and drawing replacements from the stock. Vuelta is the same, except that the...

pinochle

A pinochle deck consists of 48 cards, with two cards of each rank and suit from ace (high) through 10, king, queen, jack, and 9 (low). When taken in
tricks, the cards are valued as follows, in the simplified point-count system, which is now almost universal: aces, 10s, and kings are worth one point each, and queens, jacks, and 9s are worthless. The table lists scorable melds (card...

piquet

Elder leads to the first
trick, and the winner of each
trick leads to the next. Second to a
trick must follow suit if possible or otherwise may play any card. The
trick is taken by the higher card of the suit led. There are no trumps. A
trick scores one point if won by the player who led it; otherwise it scores two points. Winning 7 to 11
tricks earns a bonus of 10 points for cards, and winning...

preference

...whist. Another distinctive feature of the game is that not only the declarer (the player who wins the bid and thus declares trump) but also each opponent is obliged to take a minimum number of
tricks, which thus imparts a novel twist to the nature of partnership play required from the two defenders.

sixty-six

Nondealer leads first, and the winner of each
trick leads to the next. Suits need not be followed. The
trick is taken by the higher card of the suit led or by the higher trump if any are played. A player holding the 9 of trump, whether dealt or drawn, may exchange it for the turned-up card immediately before leading or following to a
trick, provided that the player has won at least one
trick....

spades

...to win an agreed minimum number of
tricks. First the nondealing partners openly discuss how many
tricks they think they can win between them. Each is allowed to state how many certain or possible
tricks he thinks he can win individually but cannot specify any cards or suit patterns held. A note is made of their eventual bid, and the dealer’s side then bids in the same way.

twenty-five

...all five. Alternatively, it is to stop anyone else from doing so (“spoil five”), thereby increasing the size of the betting pool for the next deal. If written scores are kept, each
trick counts 5 points, and the target is 25.

whist

Dummy whist is another three-handed variant, ancestral to bridge. Three hands and a dummy hand are dealt, the latter faceup on the opposite side of the table from the person whose turn it is to play it. Each player takes the dummy for the duration of a rubber, which is five points up; a game is three rubbers. The player with the lowest cut (i.e., lowest randomly selected card from the deck) at...

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